


A Golden Avenger's Heroes

by XtaticPearl



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Kids, Panic Attacks, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Rhodey Is a Good Bro, Tony Stark Has A Heart, finding hope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-14
Updated: 2016-10-14
Packaged: 2018-08-22 08:52:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8280085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XtaticPearl/pseuds/XtaticPearl
Summary: After a shattering defeat, every hero needs someone to remind them of what is worth fighting for. Tony finds it in some real life heroes, who come in smaller packages.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Missy_dee811](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy_dee811/gifts).



> This one is for Dora and Nat (knightinironarmor) from Tumblr. Thank you for keeping the Tony Stark love alive <3

It had been 168 hours since a cold pyrrhic victory for a broken hearted Iron Man. One week, counted in hours because the days moved too slow when he wasn’t working and he wasn’t working much beyond Rhodey’s prosthetic support because he had learnt to prioritize. And Rhodey always came first. Just the way that Tony always came second to all those he put first. 

It was a golden rule of the golden Avenger’s life. It was an accepted reality. It was not right, but it was okay.

What was not okay, was the way Tony fluctuated between dwelling in hope for the future and bitterness of the past. he would wake up with a euphoric idea to revolutionize the world and go to bed with a crumpled letter crushed under his pillow. It was abhorrent to the restless man that he was stuck in a rut, in an inescapable maze of ruins and resolutions. 

It all came to a head with Rhodey, like everything in Tony’s life now did.

“You’re drowning,” Rhodey told him as he ran a firm but soothing hand over the retching genius’ back, shifting his own weight between one cyber leg and the other, “You’re sinking fast, Tones, and you need a lifejacket.”

“You gonna throw me one, platypus?” Tony coughed with a sardonic smirk as he leaned back and took a deep breath, the stench of wasted bile and something stronger than regret wafting around them. Rhodey offered him a hand and pulled him up quietly, moving forward to fill up a glass of water for Tony to rinse.

“I think you gotta find one yourself, this time,” he replied as he watched his oldest friend clean his mouth.

“Yeah? How? What lifejacket could possibly be large enough to save this big a mess?” Tony laughed with a bitter tone and Rhodey didn’t rise to the bait, instead watched him with unwavering eyes as Tony splashed his face with cold water and wiped it clean.

“I don’t know, Tones,” he said quietly as he leaned back against the cool bathroom tiles and considered his friend, “But you gotta start searching somewhere.”

“Where?” Tony asked in the tone that suggested that there would never be such a place.

It turned out that there was and it was one that rang close to Tony’s life. He had always heard and been told that childhood was a root that built a tree but never had he imagined that it could also be one that could rebuild a man.

They started out small, the rebuilding. Swapping self-sympathy with empathy for others came naturally for the man who just needed the right channel to guide his energy into. 

Tony began reading his fan-mail again, a practice he had put on pause during the madness that had been herding the ex-team for the Accords. Rhodey helped, sometimes teasing him about the gushing, sometimes playing ideas about possible demos, but mostly reading. Silently reading with Tony, as both men revisited the real hero behind a red armor. There were patiently sketched crayon scenes of Iron man giving a bunch of kids a ride over New York with aliens groaning in defeat on the streets. There were blunt questions about the tech involved in the suit that had Tony and Rhodey debating on who’s suit was better. There were shy requests of visits to SI from girls who wanted to meet the awesome Pepper Potts. That one had been a catalyst in Tony re-establishing communication with Pepper, awkwardly but with a fresh wave of acceptance. 

And then there were the ones from kids who were the real heroes, battling illnesses, hurdles, trauma, disabilities and stigmas but still holding hope. For the future. Of the future. 

Tony’s first visit to one of these heroes was to meet Aylah, the girl who dreamed of being an astronaut and fought her tumor everyday to reach the day when she would fulfill that dream. Tony went wearing the armor but Aylah shot him a smile and asked if she could instead meet the inventor who loved space. They spent an hour, the maximum Aylah was allowed by her guardians, talking about Dora the explorer and NOAA GOES and Judith Resnik and Tony’s AIs.

“Thank you, Mr. Stark,” she said when he got up to leave and it struck him, how she saw him as Tony and not Iron Man. As a person and not a superhero.

“May I visit again?” he asked, the first request from his side. Aylah shot him an impish smile and nodded.

“We’ve got a lot more space to discuss, don’t we?” she said and dropped a quick kiss on his cheek before he left. Rhodey took a silent picture of Tony’s red cheeks during the drive back to the Compound and made sure that Friday saved a copy for the future.

After Aylah, there was Bao, the five year old from Philadelphia whom Tony met in a con arranged by Pepper as part of the Make-A-Wish alliance. Bao reminded Tony of a long lost young boy with inquisitive eyes and a penchance for heroes. Dressed in a surprisingly accurate mini-Iron Man costume, he grabbed on to Tony’s mic at the con and talked away to glory, sentences overlapping and songs making entrances sometimes. 

“Thanks, Iron Man!” Bao grinned as he hugged Tony at the end of his speech with the background of a thunderous applause and Tony thought that maybe being seen as a superhero wasn’t all that bad either.

“Fly high, mini-me,” he winked at the young boy in remission and laughed when he found Rhodey deep in debate with Bao’s twin sister about the merits and demerits of onesies.

It came in an unplanned and unstoppable chain, the names after that. There was Jewel, the paraplegic supergirl who could cut anyone down with the driest of one-liners. There was Kaydron, the boy who had survived a shooting incident and beat Tony in chess twice. There was Mabel, with her spiked hair who had thrown a tantrum when she had refused to believe that Tony was Iron Man, all thanks to a disastrous shaving incident that Rhodey would _not let go_. There was Ophelia with her downy hair and love for music, reminding Tony of a mother’s fingers floating over a piano. There were more and Tony went again and again, squeezing time, borrowing hours from his jam-packed schedule and pairing up with Pepper to find better ways to continue the tradition.

When he couldn’t find time to go and visit them at their homes or hospitals or schools, he began arranging for visits to the Compound. 

“The silence could use a break,” he told Rhodey with a shrug and Rhodey being the smart one, simply smirked with a shake of his head and agreed.

The emptiness of a team that had left began filling up with the warmth of a generation that asked for nothing, no money, no loyalties, no big gestures other than just Tony and the parts of him he wanted to share. The movie day of Star Wars with a bunch of fellow nerds and geeks in the kids category turned out to be one of the best times of Tony’s recent past. Loving the idea and feel of watching movies with people who liked watching them with him, he even dropped a surprise visit to one of the local cinema halls, burrowing himself next to a stern 12 year old who shot him and her brother glares when they shared popcorn over her head. The visits and activities that had to be accompanied to by Rhodey or Pepper became voluntary solo visits. 

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. The retching of bad mornings and binge working after panic attacks gave way to productivity and hope, in ounces but good ounces.

It was after months, more than six or so, on a cold winter’s night that Tony turned to Rhodey on the living room couch, pizza in hand and a satisfied smile on his face.

“Hey Rhodes?”

“Hmm?” Rhodey hummed without taking his eyes off the TV screen.

“I think the lifejacket worked,” Tony said and Rhodey hummed.

“I know, Tones,” he said and reached forward to snag a pizza slice from Tony’s plate, “Now hold on to it.”

For once in his life, Tony took that hint.

**Author's Note:**

> I think it came out pretty blah. Still, feedback please? <3


End file.
